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Author 



Title 



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THE 




IDEAS AND THE MEN 



THAT CREATED THE 



UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA ON CHARTER DAY, 
FEBRUARY 45, 1881. 



BY 



Prof. Samuel Aughey, Ph.D., LLD. 






LINCOLN, NEB.: 

.JOURNAL COMPANY, STATE PRINTERS. 

1881. 







I 



THE 



IDEAS AND THE MEN 



T 



THAT CREATED THE 



UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA ON CHARTER DAY, 
FEBRUARY 15, 1881. 



BY 



Prof. Samuel Aughey, Ph.D., LLD. 



LINCOLN, NEB.: 

JOURNAL COMPANY, STATE PRINTERS 
1881. 






3Lt« 



'I ,< 



5 a 



X 



> 



At the Faculty meeting of Feb. i6, 1881, Prof. G. E. 
Woodberry offered the following resolution, which was 
unanimously adopted: 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Faculty be tendered to Prof. Aughey 
for the valuable address delivered by him upon '^Charter Day," 1881, 
and that he be requested to furnish a copy of the address for publica- 
tion. 

GEO. E. HOWARD, 

Sec. of the Faculty. 



THE IDEAS AND THE MEN 



THAT CREATED THE 



UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, 



The territorial legislature of 1865 and 1866 prepared a 
State Constitution, which was submitted to the people June 
2d, 1866. It was preceded by a somewhat bitter discussion. 
Among the arguments urged for its adoption was the fact 
that the sooner it was accomplished the finer the lands that 
could be obtained for educational and internal improvement 
purposes. After the vote was taken the Constitution was 
declared carried. One of the provisions of the enabling 
act was that lands for an Agricultural College and Univer- 
sity must be accepted within three years, and colleges 
opened within five years afterwards. The trust was ac- 
cepted by the State, and it received from the general gov- 
ernment the promised gift. It is questionable whether the 
lands for internal improvements were wisely expended. 
Fortunately, however, the lands for the endowment of the 
Agricultural College and University remain comparatively 
intact, and a wise provision of law prevents them from be- 
ing squandered. The leasing and sale of them is so regu- 
lated as ultimately to secure a princely endowment for these 
institutions. 

The legislature that met in January, 1869, passed an act 
on the 15th of February — twelve years ago — to establish a 
State University, vesting its government in a Board of Re- 
gents, to be appointed, in the first instance, by the gov- 



ADDRESS. 



ernor, who was ex-officio chairman; the superintendent 
of public instruction and the chancellor of the university 
being also members of the board. Under the new consti- 
tution the government is vested, as is well known, in a 
board of six regents, whose terms of office last six years, 
two new ones being elected every two years by the people. 
Previous to this — June 14th, 1867 — in the act for locating 
the seat of government, the agricultural college and the 
state university were united. 

By an act of Feb. 15th, 1869, the governor, secretary of 
state, and auditor were appointed to sell the unsold blocks 
in Lincoln owned by the State, and to locate and erect a 
university building. Of the sum realized in this way, 
$100,000 was appropriated for this purpose. On the fol- 
lowing first of June the plans and specifications prepared 
by M. J. McBird, then of Logansport, Indiana, were ac- 
cepted by the capital commissioners for the university 
building. These plans were submitted to the board of re- 
gents June 3d, 1869, and accepted, subject to any modifica- 
tions which they might suggest. The contract for building 
was given to D. J. Silvers & Son, of Logansport, Indiana, 
on the same day. About the middle of July, the contract- 
ors commenced work, and the walls were so far completed 
by September 23d that the corner stone could be laid, 
which was done with Masonic ceremonies, under the man- 
agement of the grand lodge of the State. The committee 
of citizens who had charge of the ceremonies raised a sub- 
scription among themselves and hired a band in Omaha for 
$375 and expenses. They traveled here all the way from 
Omaha in carriages. A free banquet to all the citizens 
from abroad was also given by the people, at their own ex- 
pense. The basement was completed during the first week 
in December. In the meantime the architect had made 
such changes and amendments in the plan of the building 



ADDRESS. 7 

as the regents had indicated. These changes greatly in- 
creased the cost of the building. The contract for complet- 
ing the university was finally given to D. J. Silver & Son, 
in pursuance of advertisements, for $128,480, which, with 
the previous cost of the excavation and basement, made the 
entire cost $152,000. 

The contractors for the University pushed the work with 
remarkable energy. At this day it is hard to realize the 
disadvantages under which they labored. The lumber was 
shipped from Chicago to East Nebraska City, four miles 
east of the Missouri in Iowa, opposite to the present Ne- 
braska City. It was hauled to Lincoln in wagons, over 
wretched roads, a distance of sixty-five miles. The con- 
tractors paid $10 a cord for wood with which to burn brick, 
and which was hauled from twenty to thirty-five miles. On 
April 7, 1870, the brick work was commenced, and though 
there was an interruption of three weeks for want of brick, 
the walls were completed and the roof on by the middle of 
the following August. In eighty-two days 1,500,000 brick 
were made and put in these University walls. The Univer- 
sity building has from that time been under the guardian- 
ship of the Board of Regents. They determined to open 
it the year following its completion. By their permission 
this chapel was used for various literary entertainments, up 
to the time of its formal opening, on September 7, 1871.* 

A RETROSPECT. 

Here let us pause to consider the step which this then 
infant State took in undertaking the establishment of a 
University. When the bill establishing a University be- 

* For fuller details of the events attending the erection of the University building, see 
Hon. C. H. Gere's centennial history of Lancaster county. Many of the facts above 
detailed are taken from that work . 



8 ADDRESS. 

came law on February 15th, 1869, the population was barely 
100,000. Even the few high schools that existed could 
barely prepare students for the freshman class, and very few 
students anywhere were in such stage of preparation. The 
state, too, was mainly settled by persons of comparatively 
small means, seeking homes for themselves and families. 
Little of the prairie had yet been brought under agricul- 
tural subjection. The state was rich prospectively, but 
really poor practically. And yet it was proposed to estab- 
lish such an institution several years in advance of the time 
required by the United States law, in order to hold the large 
grants of land for the support of the Agricultural College 
and University. Under these circumstances many claimed 
that it would be wiser to wait for an increase in population 
and wealth, and the building up of preparatory schools be- 
fore inaugurating such an enterprise. Others again wished 
to relegate the higher education wholly to the Christian de- 
nominations, by whom for generations it had been con- 
trolled in the eastern states. 

Against these arguments, on the other hand, it was urged 
that a new state could not too early establish the higher edu- 
cational institutions. That the most distinguished colleges 
in the east originated during the infancy of the common- 
wealths which they have made glorious ; that Massachusetts, 
for example, owes her political and intellectual glory to the 
fact that Harvard has for generations, and from its earliest 
history, been training her sons; that Yale performed the 
same duty for another colony, and is now great because she, 
too, began her career so early in the history of the common- 
wealth which she also is making illustrious. There were 
others, too, who felt at that time, and urged it upon the peo- 
ple of the State, that the time had come when an advance 
should be made on traditional methods of education. The 
state had provided a magnificent free school system. To 



ADDRESS. 9 

perfect that scheme, the higher education needed to be fur- 
nished to the youth of the state on the same terms as the 
common schools provided elementary instruction. To do 
this, a University was needed — a University "by the people 
and for the people" — an institution which should be ex- 
pressive of the intellectual life, not of the past or present, 
but of all time. To accomplish this, an institution was 
needed where pre-eminently the scientific spirit should ob- 
tain. By the scientific spirit is not meant a mere study ot 
the sciences so called. Scientific methods are applicable to 
all studies — to literature and languages, as well as to meta- 
physics, political economy, natural history, and physics. 
The scientific spirit pre-eminently makes its inductions from 
facts — facts in nature, in consciousness, in language, in the 
life of a people, and the development of an epoch. It does 
not depend merely on facts which are tangible to the senses, 
but on those also which can be seen only with the mental 
eye. Leibnitz and Newton, Cuvier, Lyell, and Agassiz, were 
types of the former, while Plato, Shakespeare, and Emer- 
son are representatives of the latter. Shakespeare saw 
things intuitively which others reached only by a laborious 
process of reasoning. A few facts in history, which thou- 
sands knew better than himself, but whose conditioning law 
they could not see, sufficed to suggest to him those mar- 
velous creations that will never die. He is the greatest 
philosopher, because the greatest creator or poet of all time. 
This scientific spirit is pre-eminently the spirit of our 
epoch. It is the spirit that is revolutionizing our times. It 
builds our railroads, bridges, telegraph lines, uniting society 
by the telephone, and turning darkness into light by elec- 
tricity. It culls the best thoughts of the literature of ages, 
and illumines them with a pure, divine light. It goes to the 
bottom of the causes that condition the phenomena of the 
material, the human and intellectual universe, until it gains 



1 ADDRESS. 

competency to say, not how things are, or ought to be, but 
how things must be to be true and enduring. The soul, so 
permeated, becomes creative, original, and possesses spon- 
taneous understanding in the highest degree of the great 
problems that are now coming into the consciousness of the 
race. Hence the modern University, that possesses the true 
scientific spirit, prompts to those actions and endowments 
that lead to original investigation and self-dependence — the 
spirit and character eminently fitted and becoming New 
America and especially the New West. 

There were many advanced spirits in Nebraska even at 
that early day. They realized that culture was something 
desirable for its own sake. Prairies indeed had to be sub- 
dued, but other interests besides that of the dollar were 
most desirable, and among these culture in distinction from 
mere knowledge, technical or general, was regarded as 
most important. 

There was another class more limited than the former 
in influence and numbers, that desired a University solely 
because of the advertisement which it would give the state 
abroad. They held, and that truthfully, that an institution 
of learning of high grade would attract the cultivated emi- 
grants into our borders, and be the most powerful factor in 
securing the settlement of this infant commonweath. 

Others again, and this was a still smaller class, a class 
that had received a one-sided impulse, by a narrow range 
of reading and study, could see no good in a university un- 
less its professors devoted themselves wholly to studies in 
natural history or physics. They pointed to the unstudied 
resources of this new state, to its comparatively unknown 
botany, zoology, and geology, and claimed that the making 
known what the state was and could be made to be in these 
particulars was itself justification enough for the establish- 
ment of a university. 



ADDRESS. I I 

The fact that the infancy of nations is often literary crea- 
tive periods was not overlooked during these discussions. 
Nothing is better known than that the most illustrious 
Greek classics were produced during the youth of the Hel- 
lenic people. The experience of many other nations is 
parallel to that of Greece. The literary ripeness of a na- 
tion devotes itself more to criticism, when its youth was 
spent in founding institutions and in the creation of literary 
masterpieces. 

It was through the dominance of such ideas as those re- 
corded above that a public sentiment was created that jus- 
tified, amid some opposition, the establishment on the part 
of the state of this university. 

THE WORK OF YOUXG MEN. 

It should also ever be remembered that the public senti- 
ment that established the university was mainly created by 
young or comparatively young men. The early legislatures 
of the state were principally made up of such. These 
young men were exceptionally able and enterprising, and 
came here to help create a commonwealth when the effort 
meant personal risk, sacrifice, and toil of unusual severity. 
To reach Nebraska twenty years ago involved the crossing 
of Iowa in stage coaches through a sparsely settled region 
for half the distance, or a longer and more tortuous journey 
by boat from St. Louis. Many of the young men who came 
here at that earlv dav have reached orreat distinction in the 
professions, in business, or in politics. I need only to refer 
to Hon. J. M. Woolworth, A. J. Poppleton, E. S. Dundy, of 
the U. S. court, C. Briggs, O. P. Mason, T. M. Marquett, 
and others who have won great distinction at the bar or on 
the bench, or both. Dr. Geo. L. Miller, J. Sterling Morton, 
R. W. Furnas, J. M. McMurphy, Bishop Talbot Lieut. Isaac 



1 2 ADDRESS. 

T. Webster (now professor of Military Science in this 
University) and brother, and Prof. Dake, of blessed memory, 
also came early, and the most of them at the first organiza- 
tion of the territory. Ex-Senator Hitchcock, and the pres- 
ent U. S. senators, were also among the first settlers of the 
state. These, then young men, and others to whom I can- 
not even allude, who have since won great distinction, and 
possessed abilities and character to make them marked in 
any state, moulded this young commonwealth. The most 
of them have been, and still are, the warm friends and sup- 
porters of this University, and no better evidence of this 
can be given than the eloquent and able literary addresses 
with which they honored us on opening and on commence- 
ment occasions. Every lawyer and every judge knows 
that the statutes framed by the young men referred to in 
the early legislatures of the state, while yet a territory, are 
remarkably luminous and able compared with the laws 
which have been enacted in our later history. 

The men who passed the bill establishing the University 
of Nebraska in the legislature of 1869 demonstrate the 
truth of what I have just said. The bill originated in the 
senate, and was known as senate file No. 86. It was intro- 
duced by E. E. Cunningham, then of Richardson county, 
afterwards surveyor general of Nebraska, and now engaged 
in successful mining operations in the Black Hills. It was 
referred to the education committee, of which Hon. C. H. 
Gere, now again in the senate, was chairman. He reported 
favorably, and at its final passage in the senate on February 
13th, every member, democrat and republican, voted for 
the bill. Besides the above the following individuals were 
members of that senate, namely C. J. Myers, Isham Reavis, 
T. Ashton, T. B. Stevenson, W. F. Chapin, J. W. Frost, 
Wm. F. Goodwill, and Guy C. Barnum. Those familiar 
with our state history will remember the conspicuous part 



I 



ADDRESS. 1 3 

that many of these men have taken since in the affairs of 
the state. In the house the university bill fared equally 
well. On its final passage, February 15th, 1869 — twelve 
years ago — it received the vote of every member. Though 
there has been much discussion since within the Republican 
party, and between the two great parties (there were no 
Greenbackers then), as to the wisdom of this measure, and 
as to the way in which this measure has been carried into 
practice, there was no controversy over its original passage 
in either house that resulted in a single negative vote. 

Any statements concerning the early history of this uni- 
versity would be defective without acknowledgments of in- 
debtedness to the patriotic, public-spirited, and noble char- 
acter of the founders of the state and this institution. With 
our present magnificent population and resources, the people 
are apt to forget the early intellectual and social workers 
in the state. No political, sectional, or other feeling or in- 
terest, however, should prevent us from giving honor to 
whom so much and so great honor is due. 

THE FIRST CHANCELLOR. 

The university having been founded at the time indicated, 
it will be interesting to consider some of the men to whom 
the first board of regents entrusted its educational work. 
First and foremost among these stands the first chancellor 
of the university. Dr. A. R. Benton. He was in many re- 
spects a most remarkable character. The circumstances 
connected with his election to the chancellorship illustrate 
alike his modesty and his high sense of personal honor. 
Rev. D. R. Dungan, then a regent of the university, of his 
own accord, first opened a correspondence with him on the 
subject, and suggested to him the advisability of being a 
candidate for the office of chancellor. He consented, but 



1 4 ADDRESS. 

took no steps to secure the position save a reference of 
Mr. Dungan to his friends in Indiana who were cognizant 
of his educational work. Among these friends were Hon. 
O. P. Morton, Hon. A. J. Porter, first comptroller of the 
treasury, E. B. Martindale, trustee of the Purdue Univer- 
sity, and many others. So little, however, did the matter 
weigh with him that he in the meantime accepted the pres- 
idency of the Northwestern Christian University, over which 
he had before presided for seven years, after having long 
been a professor in the college. He was therefore taken 
by surprise when, in the beginning of 1871, he was notified 
of his election to the chancellorship of the university. He 
was invited to meet the regents about February 7th, 1871, 
for mutual acquaintance and consultation, and to decide as 
far as possible as to the opening of the university. He was 
also invited to deliver a popular address, which invitation 
was accepted. Meeting the regents at the appointed time, 
he frankly told them he regarded his election as a great 
compliment, but that he gave them perfect liberty to rescind 
their action in his case, or to choose another for the posi- 
tion. He wished them to have perfect liberty, after per- 
sonal acquaintance, to do what seemed to them best for the 
university. He also gave advice as to salaries, especially 
that of chancellor, which he considered, under the circum- 
stances of a new state like Nebraska, altogether too high. 
He wished them to retrieve any false step which they had 
taken in the election of chancellor. In other words, he was 
ready to sacrifice his own interests for those of the univer- 
sity, if, in the opinion of any of the regents, the two inter- 
ests were in conflict. 

At this February meeting the time for opening the uni- 
versity was not fixed ; this was done at a meeting in the 
following April, when it was resolved to commence opera- 
tions on the 7th of the following September. Dr. Benton 



ADDRESS. 1 5 

returned to Indianapolis and succeeded in cancelling his 
engagement with the N. W. C. University. He removed 
to Nebraska in May, and at once set about the work of the 
university, which consisted then in remodeling the rooms, 
estimating purchases, arranging courses of study, and ad- 
vertising the opening and the advantages of the university 
by lectures. 

I shall never forget my first interview with Chancellor 
Benton. He wished me to select a room which would 
answer the double purpose of a lecture room and work 
room, where the experiments should be prepared to illus- 
trate the chemical lectures; for it had already been decided 
that though my chair was that of the natural sciences, I 
should also fill that of chemistry until the growth of the 
university should justify the election of a tutor or a profes- 
sor for that department. While looking over the univer- 
sity with him the regret was expressed that no provision 
had been made in the way of room for laboratories. Dur- 
ing that walk we decided on the arrangement which has 
lasted till now — which we had hoped should be temporary — 
namely, to arrange the room now occupied by tutor Little 
and the present laboratory and the philosophical apparatus 
room for the purpose indicated. 

The long looked for and anxiously expected 7th of Sep- 
tember finally arrived. If I remember correctly, about 70 
students made their appearance on that morning. After 
chapel exercises the first faculty meeting was held in this 
hall. We sat in this right hand corner — five of us, namely: 
Chancellor Benton, Prof. O. C. Dake, Manly, Church, and 
myself. That was the beginning of the faculty Cove feasts, 
that have been held with more or less regularity every 
week during term time to the present time. On extraor- 
dinary occasions these love feasts have been held daily. 
At the close of the first faculty meeting Manly asked me 



1 6 ADDRESS. 

what I thought of the enterprise and attempt that we were 
about to make to found a university. I will not here give 
my reply. Suffice it to say that all felt that the greatest 
responsibilities rested on them, and that we were all under 
obligations to make an extraordinary effort to compel suc- 
cess. That first year was an extremely hard one. All the 
teachers were overworked. I taught six hours a day be- 
sides having the care of the chemical department and the 
founding of a museum. The chancellor, Prof. Dake, and 
Church, worked equally hard. I wish, however, particular- 
ly to speak of Chancellor Benton. What I have already 
said in part illustrates the nobleness of his character. He 
was remarkably considerate of the feelings of his associ- 
ates. I never knew him to wound the feelings of a profes- 
sor intentionally under any provocation. He meant to be 
exactly just, and never was more happy than when he could 
help or confer a favor on his fellow workers. He uniform- 
ly was careful to preserve their good name. He was ex- 
ceedingly cautious and careful, and watched with a most vigi- 
lant eye all the interests of the university. He had finan- 
ciering abilities of a high order, and never ran himself into 
debt, and discouraged the contracting of them by all — uni- 
versity and students. He carried this spirit to such an ex- 
tent that some of the friends of the university imagined 
that he was lacking in public spirit. His plans and his 
spirit, however, have stood the test of time, and few, if any, 
at this period, who are conversant with all the facts of that 
time, attach blame to his methods. 

Amid all the trials which his work involved, he always 
found time to prosecute the studies of his life. His schol- 
arship was accurate and broad. Familiar with the classics, 
the amenities of literature occupied much of his attention. 
He was well posted with the progress of science, and fa- 
miliar with the profound biological and philosophical dis- 



ADDRESS. 1 7 

cussions which distinguish our epoch. He shone in the 
recitation room, and especially in those departments that 
represented the different chairs that he had filled. In fact, 
so varied was his scholarship that he was equally at home 
in almost every department of college work. He made 
every object luminous by the clearness of his analysis. 
In popular address, when using a manuscript, he rarely did 
justice to himself; but his productions uniformly read re- 
markably well. When, however, he dispensed with a 
manuscript, he spoke with rare eloquence and power. To 
me the most remarkable feature of his lectures was their 
accuracy, elegance, and clearness. Nothing slovenly ever 
appeared from his tongue or pen. I never knew a man so 
entirely free from exaggeration. No fact or statement was 
ever colored by him. Every member of the faculty, every 
citizen that formed his acquaintance, at once trusted impli- 
citly every word that he uttered. Neat in person, pure in 
thought, clear in intellect, studious in life, courteous to a re- 
markable degree, the charm of the social circle, he was a 
model Christian, scholar, and gentleman. 

As would naturally be expected from such a character, 
he constantly improved on acquaintance. Amid the turbu- 
lence of the times, concerned only to do his duty, and im- 
measurably more interested in the success of the univer- 
sity than in himself, he was gaining slowly but surely 
during all the years that he was here, in the good opinion 
of the people. He was more popular than at any time be- 
fore, with those who knew him, when he left the state to 
return to the scenes of his early labor and triumphs. I 
need not say here what is so well known, that he was uni- 
versally beloved by the students. 

I consider, therefore, that the university was exceedingly 
fortunate in its first head. With a less cautious, careful, 
well-balanced and able head, it might have failed. Under 



1 8 ADDRESS. 

his administration there was a regular and constant growth 
of the university, and his last year here was the most suc- 
cessful up to that time in its history. Unfortunately no 
catalogue was published at the close of his last year of the 
university management, as had previously been done, and 
from this circumstance the credit due to him at that time 
was not made known to the public. This omission to pub- 
lish the final results of his labors for the university was an 
injustice to him which he felt much less keenly than his 
friends. Conscious of the high character of his own work, 
he was willing silently to await the arbitrament of time. 

The success of the university during the chancellorship of 
Dr. Benton was the more remarkable, as difficulties unex- 
pected and unforeseen arose that naturally greatly interfered 
with the attendance of students. Among these obstacles 
to success were the locust raids of 1872, '^^i^ and '74. 
Owing to these raids the agricultural classes, which consti- 
tute the majority of the people, were financially straitened, 
and were unable to send their children to school away from 
home. At the same time occurred, or commenced, the 
great financial crisis of this decade, during which time 
shrinkage in the value of real estate and other property 
occurred to such an extent that many people who had been 
opulent were impoverished. That the university should 
grow during such times and under such circumstances is a 
remarkable feature in its history, and speaks volumes for 
its management and those who were doing its educational 
work. It should also be remembered- that when the uni- 
versity was opened in 1871 the population of the state was 
only 133,000, and [at the close of Chancellor Benton's ad- 
ministration in 1876 it had increased to 357,747. The 
per cent of students to the whole population has never 
been higher — seldom indeed so high. The first year it was 
almost one to every 1,000 of the population. The last 



ADDRESS. 1 9 

year it averaged almost the same. At the same rate we 
should now have an attendance during the year of 450 
students. 

THE FIRST PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

One other character connected with the early history 
of the University deserves special mention. I refer to 
Prof. O. C. Dake, the first professor of English literature. 
Before his election to the chair which he adorned, he 
published a volume of poems, whose title was "Nebraska 
Legends." He found abundant materials here to inspire 
his muse, and loved to pour out his thoughts and emotions 
in inspired song. His reading was exhaustive, especially 
in literature and history, and in some departments of the- 
ology. For he had been an active priest in the Episcopal 
church, and was still in connection with that body. He was 
exceptionally open, candid, courageous, and impulsive. No 
man ever doubted where he stood, or what he thought. 
Tenacious in his opinions and convictions, he never took an 
unfair advantage of an opponent. Owing to his impulsive 
character, and sometimes speaking and writing without 
careful study, he laid himself open to attack. He was 
ready to give blows and also to receive them. His nature 
was so generous, sympathetic, and noble that no one could 
long remain in his society without loving him. The poetic 
temperament was his in a high degree. The second vol- 
ume of poems which he published during his connection 
with the university demonstrated that his muse was in- 
creasing in intensity, brilliancy, and depth. It received 
many encomiums from literary critics. Had it been pro- 
duced in the centres of literary activity, or any portion of 
the populous east, this volume, would have been sought, and 
the edition soon exhausted. The number, however, in 



20 ADDRESS. 

Nebraska at that time who appreciated and loved poetry 
for its own sake was comparatively small. And yet the 
number of educated people, compared to the whole popu- 
lation, was exceptionally high. Poetry, however, was not 
then "the rage." There were few who could give an in- 
dependent judgment of the merits of a poem. Owing to 
this and other causes this volume, which contains many ex- 
quisite thoughts, attracted comparatively little attention. 
I have no doubt, however, that in the years to come, when 
there is a greater love for fine scholarship, and greater ap- 
preciation of culture, when the masses will be raised closer 
to Prof. Dake's level, his works will be sought, and resur- 
rected from the comparative oblivion in which they are now 
buried. As an illustration of the character of the man I 
will quote his estimate of what manhood should be from his 
"Nebraska Legends:" 

" Men grow by independent thought, 
Self-centred action unconstrained; 
Far greater he whose^lines are wrought 

By purpose in himself contained 
Than he who, by another's will, 
Some petty place must daily fill — 
Some tiresome, endless, dull routine 
That makes him but a mere machine. 
Give me a hut with scanty cheer, 
Far on the blooming, wild frontier, 
A yoke of cattle and a cow, 
And acres of my own to plow — 
A dog, a gun, the sweet blue skies, 
And Nature's charms and mysteries ; 
So I may ride, or sit, or play, 
Or read my book each stormy day; 
And I shall feel myself a king." 

Had Prof. Dake's life been prolonged to the present, his 
genius would have produced riper and more luscious poetic 
fruit. At no time during his life was he developing so 
rapidly as during his last years. He frequently conversed 



ADDRESS. 21 

with me about the future, and sometimes expressed a long- 
ing desire to experience soon the glories of another life. 
His sensitive organization, susceptible to every physical 
and social influence, quivering constantly with pain or de- 
light, rapidly wore itself out and prepared him for that 
attack of paralysis which removed him from earth. 

But he still lives in the heai"ts of those whom he influ- 
enced for good, and in his works, which are destined to 
delight and cultivate more souls in the future than they 
have yet in the past. 

THE FIRST PROFESSOR OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE AND 
LITERATURE. 

If time permitted I would love to dwell on the work and 
character of Prof. S. H. Manly, who was a member of the 
first faculty of the university. Unfortunately for him he 
was suffering from nervous prostration when he came to 
the university, from which he never recovered. Much of 
the time while he was here he could only do partial work, 
his classes being heard principally by Prof. Church, and oc- 
casionally one by myself and Prof. Dake. Under these 
circumstances he could not do himself justice. He was, 
however, a fine Greek scholar, and his range of reading had 
been wide. He was singularly amiable, courteous, and gen- 
erous. Few men have ever so constantly observed the 
amenities of life as Prof. Manly. Students universally loved 
him. There is no doubt whatever, had his health enabled 
him to prosecute his work with vigor, he would greatly have 
distinguished himself. Finding at last that there was no 
hope of his restoration while holding his professorship he 
resigned his chair early in 1875. Faculty students and 
regents parted from him with great regret. Invalid as 
he had been during the whole of his connection with the 



2 2 ADDRESS. 

university, he still exercised over it by the influence of his 
noble character the happiest influence. 

OTHER EARLY PROFESSORS. 

Professor Church, the only other original member of the 
faculty besides myself, who is still with us, fortunately for 
the university, is too close at hand to be done up in this 
address. I hope never to have that privilege, as in the order 
of nature I shall be gathered to my fathers before him. 
Professor Hitchcock, who came here in the second year of 
the university, and Professors Bailey and Thompson, who 
came still later, are so near to us in time that no discus- 
sion of them is called for on this occasion. 

It has long since been observed that the best endowment 
of a university is the endowment of commanding and noble 
intellect and character. Such an endowment alone makes 
a university possible — makes it the center of intellectual 
light and quickening influence. With such characters this 
university was blessed in its early history. Whether it has, 
fulfilled the promise of its youth it is not for me to say on 
this occasion. It is not, however, improper to express the 
conviction that after years will recognize the fact that even 
now magnificent work is being done, work that will blossom 
into beauty and noble achievements. It is one of the infirm- 
ities of mankind that character often is not appreciated or 
understood until it is separated by distance or removed by 
death. I have myself even yet, after many disappointments, 
unbounded confidence in the final success of this institution. 
It is a creature and a child of the state and the age. The 
training already given here, the young men and women sent 
forth from these walls into the battle of life, the literary 
work, and scientific work done here, are an earnest of a 
glorious future. Students themselves, their character, their 



9 ^ 5" dl 



ADDRESS. 23 

work, their attainments, their abihties acquired in the studies 
and Hterary contests of the university, along with that of 
the faculty, are a force that must lift this university in the 
order of nature into a prominence and a power for good, 
second to no other in the great republic. 



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